Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Thursday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report on how Capitol Hill is reacting to the Biden administration’s renewed talks with Iran, and talk to Rep. Rich McCormick about his vote against creating a special envoy position focused on the Abraham Accords. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Ben Cardin, Galit Altstein and Bill de Blasio.
Yesterday saw a dramatic day in Israel’s Knesset surrounding a vote — central to the judicial overhaul talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition and the opposition — to appoint two Knesset members, one from each camp in line with the status quo, to serve on the nine-person Judicial Selection Committee that appoints judges. A contentious point of the judicial reform proposals has been the suggested change in the makeup of the committee that would give the majority of the seats to coalition members.
A majority in the Knesset voted in favor of the opposition’s candidate, Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar, while the candidacy of coalition MK Tally Gotliv, from Netanyahu’s Likud party, was rejected in a 59-15 vote.
Though the vote was conducted by secret ballot, the 58-56 outcome in favor of Elharrar indicates that four coalition members voted for her, handing a win to the opposition after Netanyahu, facing pressure from both sides, instructed his coalition not to vote for either candidate.
An anonymous Likud MK who voted for Elharrartold Israel’s Channel 12, “We saved Netanyahu from [Justice Minister] Yariv Levin [who pushed for the election of two coalition members to the committee.]” The lawmaker added, “If Karine Elharrar wasn’t chosen, there would have been [another] [Yoav] Gallant incident here on steroids,” referring to the mass protests and general strike sparked by Netanyahu’s dismissal of the defense minister, which he later retracted.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and MK Benny Gantz, in a joint appearance yesterday evening, hailed Elharrar’s appointment but said they would pause judicial reform talks until a second MK is appointed to the committee. The Knesset is expected to hold another vote on the appointment within 30 days.
“The committee was not established, the threat to democracy has not been removed,” Lapid said. “Netanyahu knew exactly what the ramifications were. They were made clear to him by us and by the president — without a Judicial Selection Committee, we won’t come to the President’s Residence [for negotiations.] No committee, no talks.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu accused Gantz and Lapid of “looking for any way to blow up the talks… Yesterday they said that if their representative wasn’t selected to the Judicial Appointments Committee they would blow up the talks, but their representative was selected and in any case they blew up the talks.”
Stateside, we’ve obtained a letter sent by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Tony Blinken supporting efforts to include Israel in the U.S.’ Visa Waiver Program. The letter comes as Israel works to implement measures to bring it in compliance with the VWP’s requirements before the Sept. 30 deadline.
iran reactions
Renewed Iran talks met with bipartisan skepticism on Capitol Hill

The U.S.’ renewed discussions with Iran over the regime’s nuclear program and American hostages were met with skepticism from senators on both sides of the aisle on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous U.S. officials, confirmed swirling rumors and reports of renewed engagements between the U.S. and the Iranian government, which have reportedly been occurring periodically throughout the year, mediated by Oman.
Kaine on credibility: “I have a hard time seeing an Iranian government that’s cracking down on people in the way they are now as sort of having the credibility to deliver a [nuclear] deal,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told JI. “I think you would find even those of us who were supporting the JCPOA, we’re so skeptical of Iran right now that you wouldn’t just get people up here who — because they supported in the past — are just going to be [supportive].”
‘Wrongheaded move’: Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said he had not yet seen the Wall Street Journal report, but “if that’s the case, I’m extremely discouraged… This whole approach to Iran is a wrongheaded move that makes our nation less safe, makes the entire region unstable, and I’m very disappointed to hear.”
Read the full story here.
Going deeper: The New York Times looks at the parameters of a potential new agreement with Iran, which include a cessation of Iranian attacks on American forces in Syria, expanded cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and a refusal to sell ballistic missiles to Moscow in exchange for the U.S. not tightening sanctions on Tehran and holding off on new efforts to punish Iran at the United Nations over its nuclear work.